The Great Mage's War
by cane-jian
Summary: The Moonlit World is a cruel place for those who inhabited it, and even crueler for those who stumble into it. This, is a story of how this world was thrown on its head, and it all stared with a meeting between two fools . . . "Beware ye who cross us, for our mercy is conditional, and our will stands unbreakable!" "Sometimes, the greater good . . . is the worst evil of all."
1. Gabin Galain

**AN: 11:14 PM, June 24th, 2018. Ok, so first of all, I'm starting to feel dis lexic(no offence dude). That is to say, like I can't focus on a single story. If this keeps up, I'll end up with a dozen barely started stories that I never seem to go back to . . . Oh well, I quite frankly have no idea were this story is going to go. It started as me thinking how I wanted someone to kick those soulless, stuck up, arrogant, Mage's Association bastards at the clock-tower, right were it hurts and spit on there pride. Trust me. If this goes as far as I want it to, your in for quite the show.**

* * *

Kariya Matou was a rather passive person. He didn't speak out often, didn't look for trouble, and tended to let things go along natural. No point causing needless friction, after all. But there were things that could cause him to lash out, first among which was his grandfather, followed by his brother, and so forth. Also among them was total strangers following ten feet behind him making no attempt to hide they were doing it.

"Why are you following me!?" Kariya demanded, turning to face the man, taking his first good look at him. He was a clearly foreign young man, most likely just out of his teens, twenty five at the absolute oldest. He had a rather plain face, with straight grey/green hair pulled into a french braid at the back of his neck. His eyes were a shocking orange colour. The most notable thing about him was the rather gaudy plaid suit he was wearing, which heavily featured green red and purple

"Oh, sorry!" the man had the decency to look and sound embarrassed in his surprisingly unaccented voice. "I just over-heard someone at that drycleaner call you Matou and thought that the name sounded familiar . . . " no . . . "so I was wondering . . . do the name's Makiri mean anything to you?

Kariya turned around and walked away without a word. "H-hey! Wait!"

* * *

 _'No matter how hard I try to avoid those people, those mages always seemed to find me!'_ Kariya thought in anger, as he walked down the Tokyo sidewalk with a hurried pace, a nasty scowl on his face.

"Hey! Wait up! I'm sorry if I offended you! Please wait!" the fact that the poorly dressed man was still following him didn't help his mood. Finally having enough of it, he paused as he passed a alley-way, looked in to make sure that there was no-one already in there, and turned down the path. Even if he didn't like the practitioners of magecraft, he new better than to confront one in public.

The man came into the alley soon afterwards, and as the man came to a stop in front of him, Kariya felt a slight ripple through his body, the same kind he felt when he walked into his family home. A boundary line, he believed it was called. Essentially a magical barrier used for multiple purposes Kariya had never bother to memorize.

Looking at the man who seemed to be thinking over what to say, Kariya absent-minded noted that he wasn't the slightest bit winded in spite of the brisk pace he had been going. "I'm sorry if I offended you. It was just honest curiosity on my part. I didn't mean to cause you any distress." he said, a sincere tone in his unaccented( _'Is he using a translation spell of something?'_ ) voice, before bowing until almost vertical to the ground.

After staring at him for a good ten seconds, Kariya finally decided to give the man the benefit of the doubt with a body deflating sigh. "It's all right. I just get a little touchy whenever my family, or magic for that matter, is brought up."

The man came up from his bow and smiled somewhat nervously. "I think I get were your coming from, you a shunned second son to or something?"

Kariya sighed again, not wanting to talk about this. "Yes, more or less, but I'm rather disgusted by mages in general."

The man seemed to brighten a bit. "I can definitly see that!" his expression then darkened. "Honestly, I once found this guy trying to kidnap a three year old because he needed a test subject that could speak, but had an "untainted mind". Trying to explain to the group leader how Cline got decapitated was both awkward and terrifying." his speech grew quitter towards the end, the last bit a mutter.

Realizing that the man before him was clearly rather dangerous (causally talking of decapitating someone, not that this Cline fellow didn't deserve it . . . ) decided he should probably make his escape (what was he thinking, confronting a mage in an alley!) "Yes, well I suppose that's to be expected, they are more or less mad scientists. Well, I have to go to lunch, preferably before my appetite is ruined by all this talk of . . . things."

Before Kariya could try to leave, the man seemed to brighten up again, his entire colour scheme seeming to get one stage brighter. "Oh, well I suppose I should treat you to lunch, after all it is I who delayed you in the first place." with that, Kariya was grabbed by the arm and whisked off without his consent, to an overly expensive restaurant.

* * *

Now, despite there somewhat awkward first meeting, Kariya and his strange stalker, who he latter discovered was named Gabin Gelain(Pronounced Gel-lain), got along rather well, the more exuberant mage being balanced out by the self-chosen reject's more passive, down to earth mentality.

Gabin was a somewhat odd person, by both mundane and magical standards, who seemed to be both curious and reckless, yet suspicious and capable at the same time. He would drag you into trouble, only to get you out of it with the same slippery, nonsensical ease as he got you into it.

"I'm telling you, those old fools at the clock-tower are so stuck in the past that most of them don't realize that trains are no longer the fastest travel method, and some of them don't even know what a phone is! I'm serious! I swear, if I have one more person ask me what my cell phone is, I swear I'll flip!" at the moment, the two had met up again after one of Gabin's jobs.

While to two had only rarely discussed magic in the few years since there meeting, more often he talked about the last sci-fi novel he had read, or a new cheezy martial arts movie. When they did talk about magic, it was usually about Gabin's grievances with the rest of his society.

Seeing as how there opinion of mages as a whole seemed more or less the same, Kariya had, early on, wondered why his newfound friend remained in the moonlit world at all. But as he got to know him, Gabin soon proved to have the overall ambition of a magus, even if it was channelled in a vastly different manner. Case in point, they were having their conversation as Gabin went through a hybrid kata at speeds that Kariya refused to believe were not the product of reinforcement.

"Yes well . . . " Kariya began as he picked up and hurled a water-melon at the martial artist(who was in a gaudy green and orange Gi) " . . . if they were more modernized, you wouldn't be able" 'splat!' "to so effortlessly defeat them with the other enforcers." Kariya finished as the water-melon was reduced to a red stain on the wall . . . thirty feet away. Curiously, the melon had remain completely in tact before it hit said wall, in spite of being struck with a fist moving over a hundred miles per-hour, something else that defied logic.

This leads us to Gabin's goal. Now Gabin had long ago decided that the life of a researcher was not for him. Rather, he had developed an obsession on a completely different subject. What he wanted, was foolish, suicidal, and all but impossible. What, one may ask? He wanted to be able to defeat the likes of a dead-apostle ancestor . . . with his bare hands. An after seeing him train, Kariya, at least, believed he could pull it off.

Not that he ever bragged about his strength, Kariya only new how strong he actually was because the martial-mage regularly came to japan to train out of the public eye . . . and insisted on Kariya helping him set up, which was as much a good thing as a bad thing.

To be honest, before he met Gabin, he wasn't a very physically active person. Sure, he jogged, but that was just to keep in good shape. Now? He could lift the three hundred pound cement blocks Gabin was fond of demolishing bare handed onto the platform easily. He would never admit how glad he was the Gabin used magecraft to clean up afterwords.

Casting aside the (humorous in hindsight) memories, he returned to watching he friend run laps around the course. He was moving faster than a car on the highway. Once again, he was sure that magic must be involved in this somehow. Even if he accepted that Gabin's strength was all but unparalleled, he still couldn't believe that was just normal human power that was cratering the ground with every step . . .

* * *

Gabin was worried. This in and of itself was not an uncommon occurrence. His constant work as an enforcer meant he often found himself in nerve-racking scenarios, such as the time he hid under a sealing-designations bed after the rest of the party was taken-out . . . but this was different. He wasn't worried for himself this time. Rather, he was worried for one of his few friends.

Over the past few months, Kariya Matou had broken contact with him. Seeing as he was one of his few friends, and the most vulnerable, that was somewhat nerve-racking. In response to the silence, he had placed several calls to his apartment, sent a half dozen letters, and a even a telegram! Nothing had gotten a response.

Thus, he had come here. Fuyuki City, Japan, to see the one person who may know where he was. Aoi Tohsaka, Kariya's childhood friend.

As he walked down the street, he found himself subconsciously using thought acceleration magecraft. Normally only practised by alchemists, Gabin had found use in it out of the desire to actually perceive his own movements. After all, the brain is an extremely delicate organ, and reinforcing it was an all but guaranteed death.

Between the reinforcement and thought acceleration, he could easily identify the amount of time it took for the sound of his feet colliding with the sidewalk to reach his ears. One would be surprised how much a minute difference in the sound waves can tell you about the area, after all, boundary lines tend to have a slight, but present, affect of air pressure. The fact that Gabin perceived magic as sound waves only enhanced the entire process to levels far above what most would be capable of.

After almost an hour of walking, he refused to use a taxi, he came up to the Tohsaka estate. He hoped that, when he arrived, Aoi would remember him. He had, after all, only met he three times, and he had never really spoken to her much. As it was, Rin and Sakura were more likely to remember him, seeing as he usually brought candy and was friends with "Uncle Kariya".

He walked through the gate's and towards the main entrance, keeping a careful ear on the sound the boundary field generated, wary for any sign that it may attack him. You never know with the ethereal ones . . .

He reached the door unscathed, and prepared to knock, only for the door to open of it's own accord when he reached for the knocker. _'Does Tokomi like horror movies?'_ Gabin through only semi seriously. Rather than enter, he waited for someone to come invite him in. He had seen to many booby-trapped entryways to feel safe just entering.

After about two minutes of standing so still he could be mistaken for a statue, someone came to the door. "Yes? May we help you?" a man in what appeared to be a priests cassock asked. Rather than question why there was a priest serving as a butler, Gabin responded.

"Hello, my name is Gabin Galain. I'm here to speak to Aoi, I'm a friend of a friend, you see. It should only take a few minutes, is she available?"

"I will go find the lady of the house. Weather or not she sees you is up to her." the priest disappeared back from whence he came. Gabin found himself, once again, standing in front of an open doorway. Was there a reason for the open door? After several moments of waiting, the master of the house appeared.

"Hello, I . . . " Tokomi shut the door in his face without looking at him, and Gabin over-heard him(remember, reinforced hearing) grumbling about a cursed door-handle as he walked away, leaving Gabin wondering if he had walked into a sit-com as he waited for the priests return. Overall, it took his ten minutes of waiting for the man to return, leaving the gaudily dressed magus to wonder how large to Tohsaka estate was. He knew they used to own the whole town, but still . . .

"The lady of the hose will see you." the priest stated factually, gesturing for Gabin to enter. As they entered the house, Gabin noted that, once again, the door was left open . . .

* * *

It took three minutes of walking to reach the room were Aoi was, confirming Gabin's suspicious about the size of the estate. Overall, it's actually surprising that the priest managed to find here on such a short time frame considering the size of these rooms. Sure, he'd been in bigger buildings, but the Tohsaka estate didn't look _that_ large from the outside. Had he perhaps found himself underground without realizing?

Coming to a stop, the priestly butler gestured to one mahogany door on the left side of the hall they were in. "The lady is in there." with that, he stood at the side of the door and waited. Realizing that he would not open the door, Gabin approached the door with as much caution as possible without coming off as rude. Concluding that the door was not a trap, Gabin turned the knob and entered the room, where he found Aoi and Rin, both happily working on what appeared to be a quilt. In spite of the heartwarming scene, he couldn't help but feel something was off.

Looking up from her task, the little girls eyes sparkled with delight. "Gabin!" she rushed up to him, smiling the whole time. "Is uncle Kariya with you?" she asked, with a curious tilt of her head.

"No, sorry Rin-chan," Gabin responded, kneeling to the girls level. "that's actually what I came to talk to your mother about." His expression shifted to one of slight worry. "Sorry, but could you leave me and your mother alone for a few minutes? It's really important."

Rin humphed, crossed her arms and blew up her cheeks. "Why should . . . I." she looked at the highly decorative crank-able top he had pulled out of the large purse like bag he had thrown over his shoulder. She gasped, her eyes lit up, and she snatched it out of his hands before rushing out of the room.

"Rin!" Aoi called. "don't be rude. Thank the good man." she seem as amused as anyone as her daughter rushed back in and bowed in apology, then dashed back out calling her thanks.

Gabin turned to the woman. "Hello Aoi. It's nice to . . . "

"Is something wrong with Kariya?" the amusement from before had faded, being replaced with a certain level of nervousness.

Gabin's shoulders sank. "That's what I came here to talk to you about. About six months ago, he stopped returning my letters. I tried calling him, but he never answered. I even sent a telegram. Nothing. I honestly wanted to come sooner, but I was off with another friend hunting for a rather dangerous artifact off in America, so I couldn't come as soon as I wanted." Gabin had an unsettled look on his face, a sharp contrast to his usual demeanour.

"When I got to Japan, I found out that he had quit his job, sold his house, and disappeared without a trace. Do you have any idea what might have happened to him? Anything at all might help at this point. I'm desperate."

Aoi looked conflicted. "Well, the last time I saw Kairya was when he came to visit a few months ago. Actually, it was around the same time you say he disappeared." Aoi looked a little melancholy. "he came to visit out of nowhere, as usual." she smiled a little, but the melancholy feeling didn't fade. "Rin was so happy to see him, he even got a gift for her."

"I doubt he only got her a present. Kariya wouldn't play favourites like that." Gabin smirked, but his expression blanked as he saw Aoi's smile fade a little, and she looked at her feet.

"Yes, he got Sakura a gift to. That's when . . . " She trailed off. That's when Gabin realized what trough him off earlyer.

"Hey, Aoi . . . " her gaze rose to meet his eyes. "Where's Sakura?"

* * *

 **AN: 12:08 AM, June 29th, 2018. Well, that's chapter 1. I hope that it's not to rushed, I feel like I just rushed into Gabin's introduction rather than developing his character. I just don't know how I would go about characterizing him in the first place. I suppose that's a result of not interacting with others enough. That, and I'm not that good with scenes like that in the first place. Not one of those people who can put out twenty chapters of training and character development before we even begin to approach canon-start.**

 **As for the story itself, well . . . For now, it will focus on the grail war and the after-shocks, but there will be some major changes afterwards. For now tho, here's a dossier for Gabin.**

 **Name: Gabin Galain.**

 **Age: 28**

 **Height: 182 CM**

 **Weight: 180 Ibs**

 **Hair Colour: Greenish Grey**

 **Eye Colour: Orange**

 **Nationality: French**

 **Likes: Gaudy clothing, Martial arts movies, Sci-Fi novels, Good fights.**

 **Dislikes: Arrogant people, Weak Morals, restraint stratifies.**

 **Natural enemy(s): Zouken Matou, Nosferatu Chaos.**

 **Element: Air, Water, Fire.**

 **Origin: Unkown.**

 **Mana Circuit numearity: 24**

 **Maba Circuit quality: E-D**

 **Maximum Prana output: 410 units**

 **Known Magecraft: Reinforcement, Structural Grasping, Alteration, Thought Acceleration, Rune Craft, Fire Magecraft, Wind magecraft, Hypnosis, Boundary Line Creation/Demolition.**

 **Description: Gabin is the second son of the Galain family, a somewhat young family devoted to the creation and manipulation of Golems and other such constructs. This family is divided into two groups, the main family and the off branches, formed from the children not selected to inherit the family crest. Members of the branch family are raised for the sole purpose of financial supporting the main family's research.**

 **From a rather young age, Gabin was outshone by his younger brother, who ultimately became the clan heir. He showed an overall disinterest in the moonlit world, until he was forced to accompany his uncle on a mission to hunt down a minor dead-apostle. During the conflict, Gabin watched as one Executor tore apart super-human monstrosities bare handed. Afterwards, he gained an obsession with martial arts, learned what magecraft could enhance said practices, and abandoned his family, who he has not been in contact with (Besides his older brother) since his teens.**

 **An unconventional magus, he is more concerned with how a spell can tie-in to his martial ability, and how to best drive his body beyond the standard human limits. This leaves him rather looked down upon in the research community, but highly sought after for mercenary work.**

 **He has several contacts in both Atlas and the Church, as well a among less well know magic circles. He is most well know for an incident were he publicly beat a dead-apostle to death, along with roughly two dozen thralls, without the usage of reinforcement. This and several other incidents have given him a reputation of over excessive brutality when his moral lines are crossed, and it is commonly accepted that it is unwise to send him after people wanted alive.**

 **Ok, Dosier finished, see you next chapter! . . . Hopefully . . . and of course the Internets out, why wouldn't it be!**

 **12:30 AM, June 30th, 2018. OK, so turns out the internet was a good thing, as this needed some modification before publishing.**


	2. Of Worriers and Worms

**AN: 9:51 PM, June 30th, 2018. Hello there folks. Glad to see some feedback! I'll be sure to answer any questions at the end of the chapter. Well, on to it then!**

* * *

Gabin ran down the road at a rate that would not be out of place at the Olympics, grateful for the low number of people in this part of town. In the back of him mind, he pondered if his parting words with Aoi were to cruel, but pushed it aside realizing he was just looking for something else to focus on beside the reality of the situation.

Tokomi had given his younger daughter to Zouken. Five hundred year old, creepy, cannibalistic Zouken. Zouken, who, Kariya had been trying (albeit subtly) to keep Aoi _away_ from for the better part of two decades, to the point of suppressing his affections for her. Something Gabin, who was not thinking rationally at the time, hadn't hesitated to tell her in detail, before running off to were he all but new Kariya was. Motou manor.

Coming up to the the gate, he felt himself go through a boundary line, and in response kept his guard up. He didn't want to have his mana drained before he got a chance to do anything.

As he marched up to the door, he noted a secondary barrier around the building, this one with a physical presence. It was actually rather hard to notice, but after the first time he had run into one of these(Being laughed at in the process), he had made sure to be wary of slight buzzing noises.

Placing his hand on the field, he applied a small amount of force. The surface didn't budge. He reared back his arm, and threw a full force punch at the barrier. It only rippled for a second. When dealing with this sort of barrier, the most common methods to breaking them was to "unweave" them and slip through the gap, or blast through them with pure brute force. Seeing as option one was rather time consuming, Gabin preferred option two . . . with his own twist.

Reinforcing his body to near his maximum, he threw a second punch at the barrier and watched it ripple again, this time focusing on the way it's sound fluctuated as he struck it. While normally he used structural grasping for this, he didn't want to waste any mana whatsoever with Zouken involved.

He threw a third and fourth punch, with a three second gap in between each, the amount of time it took the boundary line to stop rippling. After the last ripple of the third blow disappeared, he surged into a flurry of blows, each blow timed for the maximum damage. The ripples, which before had been barely noticeable distortions in the air, were now causing the entire front of the house to appeared distorted, with them practically being waves and the area were Gabin was striking having visibly sunken in a foot.

With a final surge which causes a massive overlap of ripples, Gabin thrust his hands into the most sunken in spot and with a wrench, ripped a hole in the boundary line, blasting through with a kick off the ground that shattered the concrete. And with that, he was through.

As he stood back up from were he had landed in a roll, he pondered how it had taken abnormally long to get through the barrier, nearly a whole minute, but then again, he hadn't used structural grasping on it, so that was to be expected. With that conclusion, he marched forward the remaining distance between himself and the door and "knocked" with enough force he was surprised it only cracked and splintered, rather than flying off the frame. Zouken had quality wood, if nothing else.

The door opened in less than ten seconds, the old piece of garbage being shoved aside as the enforcer entered, nearly knocking the worm man over in the process. "Were is Kariya?" He demanded, turning to face the ancient . . . thing.

The old magus sneered. "You nearly ruin my bounded field for that? Couldn't you have called? I do have a phone, you know!"

"Shouldn't have activated it then. Were is he you old parasite?" Gabin was nor up in the old magus face.

"The old Man snorted and looked away as if in disgust. He's in the third room on the second floor. He just came out of a training session so try not to . . . " Gabin turned around and headed for the stairs without bothering to listen to the old worm.

Practically stomping up the stairs and marching down the hallway with heavy steps echoing through the building. Upon reaching the door, he paused, took a moment checking for traps, the opened the door without knocking, qute honestly prepared for there to be a giant worm monster or shuch on the other side.

Luckily, Zouken had told the truth. Kariya was inside, back against one of the small rooms walls, a distant look on his face.

"Kariya!" dashing over to his friend, Gabin nelt at his side as Kariya's eyes came into focus, before he turned to look at the Gaudily dressed mage. "what happened to you!" Gabin took in his friends appearance. Kariya's skin was pale, not it's usual, sits in an office all day pale, but a sickly colour. His hair had turned half white, and his blood veins stood out visibly.

"Gabin? Gabin, what are you doing here?" Kariya asked, before he started to cough.

"I was looking for you you big idiot! What the heck were you thinking? You know what Zouken's like, Hell, you told me in the first place! He'll take you for everything you have then feed you to his worms, you big idiot!" Gabin roared at the parasite ridden Matou as he helped the man to his feet.

"Zouken promised me, he will set Sakura free . . . he'll set her free if I win him the grail. I just need . . . "

"To win a Two hundred year old battle that has never been won before, in spite of being, most likely, the most incompetent magus there?" Gabin snapped. "Yah, right, your chances are next to nil, and even if you do win you probably wouldn't survive to take care of her afterwords! What's the point behind doing this?!"

Kariya couhed agian. "I need to save Sakura."

"Hell ya do, come on were getting out of here." He lifted Kariya unto his shoulder and limped him out of the room.

"Gabin, I can't leave." Kariya said, knowing that in his current state it would be futile to resist phisicaly.

"Yes, you can, and you are. We can get Sakura back some other way!" Gabin snapped.

"No we can't! There's no turning back at this point!" Kariya found the strength to stand, if only barely, and pulled away from him, placing his hand on the hall-wall for support. "I've made my decision, I have to do this. I'm sorry."

Gabin stared at him for a moment, expressionless, before a new voice roused him from his thoughts. "Are you going to take uncle Kariya away?" the voice asked. Turning around, Gabin came face to face with Sakura.

The girl had grown slightly since the last time he had seen her, and her hair was longer. Rather than the original black, said hair was now a deep purple shade. Her eyes were purple now as well. Her eyes . . . her horrible eyes . . . they were all but dead, the eyes of someone who had gone through something horrible, and not recovered. These were not eyes a six year old girl should have.

Kariya walked up to the girl, crouched, and placed his hand upon her shoulder."No, Sakura, I'm not going anywhere. Me and Gabin are just having a . . . difference of opinion. Don't worry, I won't leave you. Now let's get you up to bed." A little more life entered the girls eyes and she nodded.

As Kariya took the girl back to her room, he looked back over his shoulder at Gabin, who had a conflicted look in his eyes, before continuing on . . .

"Oh, leaving so . . . " 'Foooooom!'

. . . Before both him and sakura turned back to the doorway to see Gabin standing there with his arm held in such a way, that it was obvious then the large, deep hole in the floor were there "Grandfather" had been standing smugly just seconds before, was his fault.

"Don't bother with getting a catalyst." Gabin said, his usual up-beat demanor having returned, even if it was a facade. "I'm going to get you one personally. See at the war!" with that, he swaggered out the exit in an over exaggerated manner.

Kariya chuckled, a slight smirk coming to his face. "See? Like I said a few days ago, when push come to shove, Gabin always has your back. Now, would you like a story, Sakura?" he felt lighter than he had in months.

* * *

Gabin walked down the street, his mind a battlefield. Hitting the old worm with one of his stronger wind spells, reducing his current body to paste in the process, had calmed him down somewhat, but he was still boiling. He still didn't think it was possible for Kariya to win the grail war. He simply didn't have the experience, which combine with the worms, would all but doom him.

Now, Gabin could try entering himself, but there was no guarantee that whatever servant he got would get along with Kariya's, unless they summoned two who were on the same side in life, which would of course, require manipulation. But, even then, there was no guarantee. No, Gabin was better off with his own plan.

Pulling out his cell phone(a Motorola International 3200) he presses a small red button on the side, causing a small pulse of mana to flow through the thing, revealing it's true propose as a mystic code. This code was essentially a normal phone with the exception of that it could connect to most magical communication devices, allowing him to contact almost anyone in the world(who had a MCD) in an instant. Dialing a number, he sat down on a bench and waited.

It took a good thirty seconds for someone to pickup on the other end, and when they did, it was obvious that they were annoyed by their tone of voice, and in combat, by the sound of bullets. "what do you want, Gabin?"

"Oh, sorry, this is a bad time. I can call back latter?" Gabin questioned, somewhat caught of guard.

"No, we both know that these things don't hold a charge, so just tell me now." several loud shots emphasized this statement.

"OK, I just wanted to know if you could get me some information from the churches executor division."

"Depends on the information. You may need to go in person. That Narbareck isn't a nice person. She only fakes being a member of the faith so she can go and kill things . . . how she ended up incharge . . . " a mighty blast sounded on the other side, causing Gabin to filch away.

"Hey, watch the sniper rifle! I need my ears! And what I need is information on all previously recorded methods of . . . "

 **An: Ok, it took me this long to write under 2K words. That's disappointing . . . guess I'm just not very into it yet . . . well either way, hope you like this chapter. The only reviews I got were a request to update soon and a comment on Gabins strength. So, instead of writing a review, I will be doing an explanation on my perception of strength in the nasuverse.**

 **(Warning. I am a lazy Canadian, who refused to get the source matterial just for the sake of a fanfiction, so all of my info comes from the wiki.)**

 **My take on Servant Parameters, Part 1: The Type-Moon wiki states that Parameter Rules are a set of rules for representing the relative power of each item ranked by letters under different systems, translated into specific parameters for "No particular reason." considering 1 to be a "normal value" means the E is equal to 10, and each letter increasing the value by 10 until A rank(50) is reached, with Ex rank showing that something is to great to fit on the scale..**

 **There are two modifiers for this rule. +(Plus) and -(Minus). Plus represents an ability to increase the power of something by 100% under specific circumstances, and each + represents another 100% power-increase relative to base(so C+ is equal to 60 and C++ is equal to 90) this is normally temporary, but may be made all but permanent under certain circumstances. -(minus) is used when one is weaker than the shown rank, but not by enough the count as the lower rank, so a value of 26 would be shown as C-.**

 **Seeing as some servants have permanent + rank parameters, I would assume this to be an affect of there legend increasing there ability, or a result of one of there ability's being beyond what they had in life, or the system failing to quantify them and giving them a plus value, seeing as they are, say above A but not by enough to truly justify Ex.**

 **Now this system is all well and good . . . but it has some basic flaws when trying to guage just how strong the servants are. The most extreme of them being the question, 1 equals what? To say that 1 is equal to a "normal value" is rather vague. Normal compared to what?**

 **Now, there are several ways we can take this.**

 **A. 1 equals the value of a normal person.**

 **B. 1 equals the normal human apex.**

 **C. 1 equals the normal apex for someone of such a physical build.**

 **D. 1 equals the normal human apex of the past.**

 **E. 1 equals the normal human apex of one with such a physical build in the past.**

 **Now, seeing as I lack the necessary information to test each, I will have to look for more information. In the meantime, let's try and calculate the minimum speed for a servant using the options we have.**

 **Assuming that agility = speed, a servant with E rank agility has speed at least ten times that of a normal human, we can determine that the minimum speed for a servant would be around 150 mph, and maximum would be around 1500(the highest agility ever shown in a servant is A+), assuming A.**

 **Assuming B. We have to look a bit deeper. Now, in real life, the top speed of a human is 27 miles per hour. However, that is clearly not the case in the nasuverse, after all, Kotomine Kirei is able to run at 31 miles per hour . . . while carrying a seventy pound girl . . . on uneven terrain . . . while no longer in his prime . . . yeah . . . so, assuming that this is in fact only half of his top speed, then we can estimate minimum speed to be closer to 600mph and maximum speed to be around 6000(That's almost Mac 8).**

 **I currently lack the information needed to calculate further without looking at the servants themselves, but I will say that I find the calculations for B. to be more likely, as during his battle with gilgamesh in the Unlimited Blade Works route, Shirou is shown breaking the sound barrier twice(at least in the anime). Seeing how the highest we could rank his agility would be C rank, the same as his future counterpart, archer, and using the calculation top speed for C rank would be 450 miles per hour, not fast enough to break the sound barrier, which requires moving over 750mph.**

 **I will now begin to reserch the servants feats themselver, and continue this at a latter date. Until next time! . . . and of course, the power goes out, don't you just love my life?**

 **12:14 Am, July 7th, 2018. Ok, now I can send it! I hate it when I nearly forget things . . .**


	3. A Draining Conversation

**AN: 11:38 PM, July 8th, 2018. Ok, I've been lazy enough today, lets get back to work.**

* * *

Gabin, all things considered, preferred to avoid Vatican. The city was beautiful and all, but the moonlit side of the place was zealot central. He honestly believed half of them hadn't even read to bible, but they still had this "Holier than tough" attitude that only seemed to drive the point in further. The shear number of hypocrisies that one could find simply staggering. In a friend of his once said, "It's a universally roman church." which is to say, it is rome-like before it is church-like.

Not that he had anything against Catholics as a whole, but he and several of his friends, had had negative experiences with them, and that wasn't counting the executors. They were the worst of the lot. Then never seemed to know more of there own faith than was necessary to keep up a public facade and preform the baptism rite. Beyond that, well, their motto might as well be "any heresy in the name of God", which alone was enough to show their flaws.

Yes, Gabin truly avoided Vatician. If he wanted to go to church, it would be either a Lutheran, or Anglican one. Maybe evangelical . . . that's beside the point. The point was that he'd rather not be here. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the information he needed out of them. They probably had it, but seeing as Gabin had earned a but of a reputation for destroying ancient magical artifacts, intentionally, they were withholding information.

The fact that he had used the person who drove him to start destroying artifacts in the first place just made it worse, but hindsight is twenty-twenty, he didn't have time to waste, so he had to call in a few favours with the "Holy Church".

That didn't make looking the utter unholy monster of a woman known as Narbareck any less terrifying. The woman oozed sadistic blood-lust even here, and the girl was still in her teens! No wonder they never let her out of her room. And there was even talk of her being the next number 01 . . . sure, she took down an ancestor, and Gabin would admit that she was stronger than he was, by a goodly margin.

"I get the feeling that you'd rather not be here." the . . . girl half his age said, her smirk better suited to a deamon than a human.

"Yes, well, if I didn't have to be here I wouldn't." Gabin replied in perfect Italian. "However, my butting heads with the association has caused me some trouble in gathering the information I require, and thus I am here, talking to you, and wishing that Calastor had gone through someone else."

"Her smile only became more predatory. Yes, well, if you hadn't come right out of the blue, master snipe would have been able to go through someone else, but, well, I'm the only one he could get on short notice." she ran her fingers through her hair. "and yes. We do have the information you need. In fact, I can think of a half dozen things that fit you requirements of the top of my head. But, weather or not we, the church, will give you anything depends on what you are willing to give in return."

Gabin tensed. Considering who he was talking to, it was likely that several free of charge suicide missions were in his near future.

"Weather or not I am able to give you anything is a matter of timing, as I may not be alive six months from now. If you ask something of me, then it had best be something I can accomplish withing that time frame."

"Oh?" she seemed intrigued, which made him more nervous. "would it be right to say that this data is may be paramount to saving your life?" she asked with the kind of kind smile that is clearly a case of "so cold it burns."

"Yes, it is." unfortunately, any sin committed within the boundary of Vatican's mystic side would be immediately revealed, thus he had to tell the truth.

"well then, I'm sure I can convince the Higher-ups to give you the information you require, so long as you promise to not divulge it to anyone outside the church, and promise us several favours upon the completion of your endeavours."

Gabin resisted the urge to flinch. In essence, she was saying that we could decide upon his payment latter, rather than now, which could turn out very badly, seeing as he was trusting his fate to a known murderous psychopath. _'Why, why did you have to agree to teach this girl battle tactics, Calastor? This has to be the biggest mistake in your carer!'_

"In other words, my payment will be decided should I survive using it?" He asked.

"Of course, that way we can determine how much the information was in the long run, rather than the short term, and you cant cheat us with a bum deal." She went from sounding childishly cheerful to deadpan at the end.

Gabin sighed. _'and of course I have nothing to bargain beyond my services, so I can't even try to get a better deal'_ "Ok, I guess that seems reasonable." _'But I wont give her any more satisfaction from watching me squirm.'_

"Ok!" if she was at all disappointed by his apparent lack of fear, then she didn't show it, and with a that cheerful exclamation, she jumped up and skipped out of the room and down the hall, like she was a normal girl, and not a murderous psychopath who had killed a half dozen vampires before she turned ten. "Coming?" she asked, poking her head back into the room.

* * *

"So, this is it?" Gabin asked, looking at a rather large bookshelf in a corner of an extremely well defended library.

"Yes, this is what your looking for. I've talked with the higher-ups, they said that you have until noon tomorrow to find the information you need. Good luck!" she sing song-ed, before turning around and leaving Gabin with the rather intimidating literary section.

Gabin, looking over the books, began to collect volumes from a multiple places, anything with a title that caught his eye. He'd rather not judge by cover, but he didn't have time to be non-discriminant.

It was hours before he could find something he could use, and hours more before he found the answer.

* * *

Calastor Grain somehow felt like he was in mortal peril. Now, considering how convoluted his twenty three years of life had been, this was a sensation he took with the utmost seriousness. This of course, meant he did not get a very good night's sleep.

"Ugh . . . " he groaned, holding his head. He had slept in ten minute busts, to scared to sleep for an overly prolonged period. Who knows when a dead apostle hunting revenge might rampage, of a magus who's relative he had killed, of worst of all, his old apprentice looking to punish him for leaving the burial agency! Sure, they still contact each other, so they seemed to still be on good terms, but she might decide to do it on a whim! That's just the kind of person she was.

Walking out of his room fully dressed, a large brief-case in hand, he checked the bracelets on either arm, each one bearing several "beads" shaped like modern weapons, ranging from guns and bombs to knives and even riot shields. Seeing that all was as it should be, he advanced down the hallway, his long coat and baggy undershirt doing well to conceal the body armour he wore underneath, which was a mystic code that far surpassed what modern body armour could block or deflect, even when reinforced.

Calastor was a man on a mission, and while he was ill rested, he couldn't afford to slow down. To much was at risk. So, rather than trying to rest, he quickly travelled to his vehicle, a rather large custom car, and drove out of town. He couldn't let anything slow him down.

His engine revved, it itself magically enhanced. After all, no normal engine could support his monster, which weighed over three tones, to regular speeds. His destination was an out of the way dirt road, that lead to an out of the way small town up in the mountains. His target, a magus specializing in human sacrifice and daemons. More specifically, the ways daemons can be formed in the wake of human death.

He wasn't being paid for his work here, but none the less he would give everything he had to exterminate his target. This wasn't for himself. Besides, he made enough money from his side jobs to be concerned with something like payment for his public services.

They worrisome thing was what the magus intended to do with his ritual. Now from what he could understand, the man was trying to create a higher level deamon by trapping the people of the town in a state of constant nightmares and near death, before killing them.

The ritual would be carried out in such a way that the "Leftover thought" remaining after their death would far exceed the norm, before fussing them into a single entity set on "escaping horror". The magus believed that he could achieve immortality if he researched enough daemons forming, and mimicking their existence.

Calastor had encountered his work before. In fact he'd had to kill daemons this man had created. Unfortunately, seeing as the daemons were unnamed and thus, not free, their master felt their death. Meaning that he new Calaster was on to him.

Calaster had managed to track him to this location, but was unable to approach directly, and had been forced to observe him with roundabout methods for days. It wasn't easy, but Calastor was out of time, the ritual would begin tonight, and he didn't intend to let anyone else die to this sick freak.

He could work about his sense of foreboding latter.

 **AN: 11:43 Pm July 15th, 2018. Well, another short chapter for the time put into it. I guess that it's hard to stay focused when you aren't working on the interesting part . . . another thing that annoys me, I've been trying to research the powers of servants, and I've already run into some inconsistency's.**

 **For instance, Hrunting, when used as an arrow is described in one instance as reaching mach 10. and in another, it's described as covering "fast enough to reach it's target four kilometres away in less than a second." this is an inconsistency, as mach 10 is equal to 3.43 kilometres a second. In order to cover ten kilometres in a second, a speed of mach almost mach 12 is required, and it would have to be fast for "Less than a second."**

 **Another problem is that servants, being spiritual being given temporary physical form, can defy physics at times, such as running straight up walls, ect. This leaves me confused as to the effectiveness of mass times speed equations. And that's before taking the conceptual side of things into account. And that's before taking into account things like the time berserker supposedly blocked Excalibur. Really wish I could get my hands on that visual novel about now . . . the clean version that is.**

 **Oh, well, nothing to do but keep looking, so until next time!**


	4. Running with(from) the Wolves

**AN: 10:31 PM, July 15th, 2018. Well, I give up, I'm treating it like a video game. I realized I'm messing with a universe were believing something can quite possibly make it true. After all, in fate, gods only exist because people dreamed them up, the most powerful weapons are belief personified and all magic is actually based of of using self hypnosis to make you believe that things work that way!**

 **Hell, there's this one character he basically ripped apart a three thousand year old werewolf like phantasmal being . . . sorry, elemental, simply because he had a weak "sense of self" and didn't know he shouldn't be able to do that! Meaning that the damage someone causes could be enhanced hundreds of times simply because it is believed they had that much power by the masses!**

 **So yeah, I give up. Ill still try and give realistic speeds, but beyond that . . . well, prepare for a lot of power hype and desperate battles against statistically superior opponents, and a whole lot of shocking decisions on our protagonists part(I hope.)**

* * *

The sound of gunshots echoed through the mountain pass, as Calastor Grain reminded himself that, as he had assumed he would be discovered three minutes earlier than he was, he was actually doing rather well. Not that that made being swarmed by no less than six dozen wolf familiars, in the middle of Russia, on the brink of winter, an any more pleasant experience.

He unleashed another hail of gunfire into the pack, several wolves jumping out of the way at speed far exceeding that of a normal wolf, others finding their great agility useless in the face of reinforced bullets moving at mach three. With a powerful surge, Calastor jumped twelve feet strait up before kicking off of a thick tree, propelling himself out of the middle of the pack. Landing on the ground just beyond them, he turned and unleashed yet another barrage into the wolves. At least three dozen canine corpses littered the forest floor, leaving only half of his original enemies remaining.

His gun ran out of bullets just as the wolves recovered enough to switch directions, with the larger than normal beasts closing the distance before he could reload of switch guns. With a vicious swing of his arms, he threw his guns into the mass of the pack, were to wolves tried to jump away as the guns glowed red hot, only to fail, with six or seven of them being consumed in twin blasts of flame.

While this did pause the wolves in front for but an instant, it was not enough to stop them, and Calastor found himself facing a tide of thirty or so masses of magically enhanced dog-meat. The first two wolves to reach him lunged in two massive leaps, only for Calastor to step forward, rather than back as it expected, grab its open jaws in his hands, and viciously snap it before throwing it aside an bringing a vicious uppercut into it's partners own jaw with enough force that ins neck audibly snapped and it was sent flying up an an almost comical spin. This happened in less than a second.

The next three wolves that lunged at him slammed into an invisable barrier, and bounced off, which had the side affect of causing the rest to skid to a halt just short, on of the three jumpers all but trampled in the process, giving Calastor time to jump back into the trees, jumping from lib to limb as the pack pursued, constantly trying to nip his heels or hit him with the weak spells that their master had embedded into them when they were first made.

 _'I'll have to make sure that a forest fire doesn't start after this'_ , he thought as he barely avoided a blast of fire that would have hit his leg as he kicked of another tree. While he had the advantage of agility, the pack was faster, and thus all but constantly beneath him. _'Should I use the grenades? No, they'd be to easily visible and most of the wolves would dodge, it's not worth it.'_ he needed a way to get them off his back . . . of feet as the case may be.

But these weren't ordinary wolves, they were far smarter, could bit through steel, had hide tougher than oak-wood, and could use basic magecraft. And that was before taking into account how these woods were all but the worst environment to fight them in.. Overall, they could probably rip a SEAL or Spetsnaz group of similar size apart rather easily in these woods.

Looking ahead he noted that he was nearing a rather steep slope that he had noted earlier into the investigation. Apparently, it was a used in a sled competition during the wither months, but for now was just a long, flat, smooth slope that was several hundred feet long. Perfect.

Now focused on one direction, he used a simple spell to increase the kinetic energy behind his jumps, and managed to propel himself ahead of the pack. (He would normal just increase the level of reinforcement on his legs, but that wasn't an option seeing as he didn't have the focus to do it while running.) coming up to were the trees broke off at the edge of the slope, he jumped, grabbed something from his wrist, rolled mid air, and landed on his back at the same angle as the slope, facing the wolves.

The object he had grabbed mid air, a small gun decoration from his bracelet, suddenly expanded into a full size military grade assault rifle, and with a flick of the safety, he was shooting at the wolves even as he slid backwards down the slope, successfully stopping their charge and causing them to retreat back to were he couldn't see them.

Sliding unto the flat ground at the end of the slope, he jumped to his feet, quickly shook out the dirt that had gone down the back of his shirt, and took off running in the direction of the town, messing around with the various tools he was carrying as he did so, finishing by checking that the pack strapped to his left hip was still there. Confirming that it was, he redoubled his pace.

Roughly three minutes after he had gone down the cliff, he heard to sound of snarls and howls in the distance. The pack was back on his tail. But this time he had several of his better suited mystic codes ready for battle and in easy access range. He could take them out without risk of being attacked while his guard was down.

By the sound of the wolves, Calastor came to the conclusion that they were roughly forty feet behind him and gaining three feet per second. He didn't look back, rather gazing ahead and focusing entirely on the forest ahead of him.

The wolves closed in behind him. Thirty feet. Twenty five. He kept running. Twenty feet. Fifteen feet. Ten feet. He jumped unto a tree branch, his grip iron, and flipped himself so he was upside down balanced on one hand. In the other, he held his re-loaded machine gun, with which he opened fire. The wolves dived aside, but no less than six were killed by the sudden surge of bullets right into their centre.

With a blast of kinetic energy, he was in the air again, rotated until he was vertical with the ground, and kicked off a branch with enough force to send him flying forward and shatter the branch in the process. He shot off with far greater speed than before, easily staying ahead of them now that he was better prepared.

With a final, powerful push, he slammed into the ground roughly a hundred feet ahead of the just now regrouping wolves, spun on his heel, and shot back at the wolf pack. The wolves took a few seconds to register this, by which time he was already on top of them.

Upon reaching them, he dove into their centre, pulled what appeared to be metal shavings out of his pockets, slammed his right foot down at an angle opposite his forward motion, said motion being cancelled out, and spun, throwing the metal in to the directions of various wolves around him. The metal without warning accelerated to speed comparable to his bullets, causing massive injuries to any wolf hit. He was down to twelve relatively unharmed wolves by this point.

His charged a group of two that were still recovering from the surprise attack, slamming the head of the one of the one on the right into the ground with a crunch, foot lashing out to strike the other in the face at the same time, disorientating it. Planting both feet firmly on the ground, he grabbed the still reeling wolf and with a mighty heave threw the four foot tall canine bodily into a cluster of three wolves to his right, before charging another group, with two wolves, on his left who had just recovered.

He dropped unto his back and skidded under a blast of flame from the first wolves mouth as the second jumped to land on top of him, giving the impression of a planned attack. Placing both hands on the ground even as he slid, Clastor slammed his left foot into the ground with enough force to flip him practically vertical, coiled his right leg, and kicked the wolf in the shoulder with enough force he felt bones crumble, causing the creature to shriek as it was vaulted over his body.

Unfortunately this position left his body open to a tackle from the side, and he was sent rolling with another would on top of him, which quickly bit onto his right arm with a grip that would crush steel. Feeling his arm placed under uncomfortable pressure, Calastor tried to pry off the canine off to to no avail.

Realizing that a large number of the remaining wolves were now lunging at him, Calastor chose to waste the mana necessary to both blast apart the skull of the wolf biting his arm and send the other wolves near him flying with notable bruising.

Rising to his feet Calastor quickly pulled what appeared to be a knitting needle out of his boot and threw it at a wolf to his right, only for the animal to jump out of the way of the attack, causing the needle to embed itself in a rather thick tree. The wolves quickly pulled back, realizing that close range combat was a lost cause, and began to bombard him with magecraft, only for the spells to collide with a barrier around his body.

Had the wolves been paying closer attention, they would have realized that every attack that hit the shield damaged the tree with the needle in it.

Calastor blasted into one of the wolves circling him, grabbing it by the neck as it tried to jump aside, the other wolves jumping aside as he slammed it into the ground with a crack. He shot his hand into the ground beside him, ripping out a baseball sized rock, and hurled it at another wolf, who was still off balance from his sudden attack, caving it's skull in when he used a the same spell he used on the metal shards to accelerate the rock to near bullet speeds.

Without warning, three wolves lunged at him, bouncing off the shield. Calastor looked around himslef, as the three circled him closely, one blasting him with blue curses the turned(the tree) to ice as soon as they hit, the others breathe out streams of fire that turned the bark black, but simply flowed around Calastor. Calastor took a fiew swings at the familiars, but they old dodged out of the way. Calastor took a few steps back, only -

"AWOOOOOOO **OOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!"**

A howl, a sound-turned-shock-wave, slammed into him. The tree trunk practical shattered, the tree stood for a second, before the tree collapsed downward and DID shatter. Even through his shield, Calastor was sent flying bodily away from the pack, bouncing painfully off of the ground several times before he finally skidded to a stop.

Forcing his sore body back to his feet, he shielded his eyes from the dust, and tried to see the wolves through the cloud. With a slight surge of prana, the cloud was pushed away from him, letting him see that several of the wolves had collapsed to the ground, bleeding from the mouth. Only three wolves remained, each looking rather tired. _'So their bodies can't take the strain of that spell, not surprising, they reduced that tree to pieces, that had to be a ridiculously powerful spell for a familiar. I'd hate to see what would have happened to me if I didn't have unison fate active on that tree.'_

Reaching into his other boot, he pulled out a combat knife, and took on a defensive position. The remaining wolves crouched down, looking at him, before, one by one, they slunk of into the woods. Calastor waited for a few minutes before he relaxed. He collected his thoughts, glanced at the sun, and tuned in what he believed was the direction of the town. He had to get their before sunset, the ritual couldn't begin unless there was moon light.

 **AN: 12:49 AM Saturday 21st, 2018. Ok, well this is somewhat better. Over 2K words. That doesn's seem like that big a difference, except that I've only actually worked on this three days this week . . . yeah, big improvement over my last few chapters, speed wise.**

 **Anyway, This chapter is more or less one big fight and into to Calastor Grain's fighting abilities. Is this him at his best? Hell no, I haven't even displayed his main fighting style. And I won't give you a full character page for him until his more unique traits become plot points.**

 **Ok, review time!**

 **ZenoZen: . . . Yes, ZenoZen, most media's have plot holes and power inconsistency's so it's not surprising . . . but it's still annoying!**

 **Guest: I'll consider bringing in Arjuna(I actually love his design), but not for the fourth war, I'd have to phase out Gilgamesh, and as much as removing him would make the battles less . . . A##-Pully in the end, I've already got plot related plans for him, and their aren't really many servants strong enough for what I need unless I pull Solomon or Siddhartha, and neither of them could play such a good villain unless they were forced to.**

 **Ok, we done? Good, my dads late birthday party's tomorrow and I need to make sure that I don't fall asleep at dinner . . .**


End file.
